17 
>y 1 



SAN FRANCISCO STATE NORMAL SCHOOL 

BULLETIN No. 5 



SCANDINAVIA: 

AN EXAMPLE OF THE 

CHALK-TALK METHOD IN GEOGRAPHY 



WALTER J. KENYON :::::::: Supervisor of Geography 



BOARD OF TRUSTEES 

5EORGE C. PARDEE G 

Ex officio. 
KIRK .Superintendent of Public Instruction 

Ex officio. 
• ■ • San Francisco 

)TNKELS.PIEL. San Francisco 

San Francisco 

.NDERLYNN STOW San Francisco 

.NK W. MARSTON. . . . . ;San Francisco 



OFFICERS FOR 1903 - 1904 

DENSON Chamnan 

:NRY G. W. DINKELSPIEL Secretary 



OFFICERS OF GRADUATE ASSOCIATION, 1903-1904 

MRS. MURIEL SWAIN-DICKIE 

yiiCE-PRESiDENT MRS. IMOGENE STEIN-JONES 

: i ary MISS RUETTE LYNCH 

Honorary Treasurer MISS KATHERINE HUSSEY 




Fig. i. 

Chalk Relief of Scandinavia. 



SCANDINAVIA: 



AN EXAMPLE OF THE 

CHALK-TALK METHOD IN GEOGRAPHY 



BY 

WALTER J. KENYON 

Supervisor of Geography, State Normal School 
San Francisco 



PUBLISHED BY THE GRADUATES OF THE 

SAN FRANCISCO STATE NORMAL SCHOOL 
January, 1904 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two Copies Received 



JAN 6 1904 

ight Entry 



fei : 'fe- 
lt LASS a- XXc. No. 

COPY 8 



,5 

,K37 



Copyright 1904 
By Walter J. Kenyon 



METHOD IN GEOGRAPHY TEACHING. 

A text-book in geography can furnish maps and can serve as a statistical 
reference book ; but by the nature of the case, a text-book can never be an 
important source of that body of general information which it is the essential 
purpose of geography teaching to furnish. In order to give pupils prac- 
ticable information concerning the conditions in foreign countries — modes of 
living, agricultural, industrial, social, and climatic conditions, etc., it is neces- 
sary that the child should receive it in concrete form, chiefly in mental pic- 
tures which he may clearly visualize. It is not necessary, nor is it even desir- 
able, that the pupil should remember these varied details ; but these concrete 
pictures are the only material out of which generalizations can be constructed, 
and the mass of such details will fade away into that perspective and general 
feeling which all persons of general intelligence possess. But it is neces- 
sary for the pupil to go through this mass of concrete detail in order to 
comprehend a generalization he may find in the text. The fields of geo- 
graphical information are so vast and so varied that a text-book which would 
include this concrete material necessarily must be a library of books. No 
two covers could possibly encompass this varied mass. The texts there- 
fore are necessarily so condensed and the language into which the facts 
must be compressed so general and abstract, that concrete picture-thinking 
is impossible from them. The pupil cannot, therefore, read the texts under- 
standing^; and if he succeeds in making out the words, they do not create 
concrete pictures for him. As a consequence, the best that the children 
of the schools can do is to memorize the words of these condensed general 
statements in order to recite or to pass the examinations necessary for pro- 
motion. 

What are we as teachers to do about it? If consciences are perfunctory, 
the State Board of Education can prescribe texts, the State and County Super- 
intendents can rigidly enforce their exclusive use, and teachers can teach 
under this wretched pretense of real instruction; but let us at least be 
frankly aware that we are forcing indigestible mental food upon the chil- 
dren. If our consciences are not perfunctory, we must recognize that sys- 
tems of instruction have found only two alternative methods of escape from 
the wretched system of geography and history teaching which formal ad- 
ministration of the schools permits, and has forced, and is now forcing, upon 
the schools : 

i. The Method of Supplementary Reading. The schools may be supplied 
by their libraries with a variety of supplementary books in travel, charac- 
teristic descriptive stories of adventure and incidents suitable to children's 
reading. 

2. The Method of Oral Instruction by the Teacher. In this case, the 
teacher becomes the source of this concrete knowledge and gives to the 

( Hi ) 



( iv ) 

pupils by oral talks, framed in matter and concrete form to call up mental 
pictures of distant countries ; the teacher must further work up these 
concrete pictures into the form of general information which the average 
person of intelligence possesses concerning those distant lands. 

The first alternative method has occasionally been tried in sporadic in- 
stances, but owing to the lack, until the very recent past, of a reference 
book to this supplementary material and to tendency in this method to drift 
into wandering and foggy recitations, it has thus far not proved of very 
general acceptance. Bulletin No. 2 of this series, prepared by Mr. Frank 
Bunker, is really the first and only comprehensive effort to offer a method, 
and furnish a reference book to supplementary geographical readings for 
school use. In Bulletin No. 6 of this series, just issued, Mr. Bunker further 
illustrates the method concretely in a special treatment of China. 

In the present Bulletin, Mr. Kenyon offers concrete illustration of the other 
alternative method — that of oral instruction combined with blackboard 
illustration. The German schools have long made extensive use of an oral 
method in teaching geography, and Mr. Kenyon as a supervisor of geogra- 
phy teaching in the Training Schools of the Normal School has worked out 
with the student-teachers a feasible method of oral instruction, especially 
serviceable in the intermediate grades, where any reading by pupils is at- 
tended with considerable difficulty. His method also has an advantage in 
any grade where the administration of the school fails to supply sufficient 
supplementary reading to make the first method practicable. The chief 
features of the plan are that the teacher reads the supplementary material, 
arranges it in the form of a chalk or blackboard lesson, by which the informa- 
tion is given concretely and systematically; and then follows class dis- 
cussions and recitations, concluding with memory drills and examinations 
upon those final generalizations which constitute the knowledge which 
persons of average general culture and intelligence possess. 

Neither of these alternative systems excludes the use of the text. But 
they make use of it for its maps, and as a review after the concrete informa- 
tion necessary for its comprehension has been acquired. 

For the purpose of illustrating this method of teaching geography Mr. 
Kenyon has selected Scandinavia because it serves very neatly as a type, 
and permits brevity with some necessary degree of thoroughness. 

Before entering upon the industrial, cultural, and descriptive material Mr. 
Kenyon's method requires that an accurate and clear mental picture of the 
map be established in the pupils' minds. The insistency he urges to secure 
a mental picture rather than what may be mere pictureless word-statements 
about the map, will be profitably noted. Far too large a majority of pupils 
in the schools study their maps in this way ; the teacher assigns a number 
of places to be found upon the map. The pupils write down the list, spend 
much time in finding them, and thereupon write down in sentences upon 
paper the location, as, for example, " St. Louis is on the eastern boundary of 
Missouri upon the Mississippi River." This is what they memorize — the 



( v ) 

zvords, not the map. Such knowledge, while it too often deceives the teacher 
in the subsequent recitation, is of little or no value as geographical knowl- 
edge, and it can serve no purpose except that of word-examination. What is 
necessary is a clear map-image indelibly impressed upon the visual memory, 
so that the child sees Missouri, St. Louis, the Mississippi River, in their rela- 
tive positions and as a part of the map-image of the United States. To secure 
this map memory, our school drill must be upon maps, not upon zvords, and 
the map must be constantly used in the study zvhile' the child's mind is in 
a state of active attention. 

It is assumed that before taking up Scandinavia there has been a thorough 
map drill of the whole world and also of Europe, as detailed in the formal 
course in map geography as outlined in Bulletin No. 2 (pp. 12-23). It will 
be noted that no exhaustive amount of map geography is required — 
only the picture-memory of those places and physical conditions with 
which the person of average intelligence is familiar, and which will be 
used in the descriptive material the teacher later details. 

TREATMENT OF THE LESSON UNITY. 

The term " lesson unit " is borrowed from the " Method of the 
Recitation," by Charles and Frank McMurry, a book with which every 
practical teacher should be familiar. The lesson unities are first stated. 
Following each of these lesson unities, which are printed in italics, are a 
number of references for the teacher's reading which bring out the thought 
of the lesson unity. One chief danger threatens this point in method. The 
teacher may be led away from her lesson unity by these mere incidents of 
the reference cited, and consequently the class discussion becomes wandering. 
The only purpose of the reference is to furnish concrete mental pictures 
illustrative of the lesson unit, and it is essential that the teacher never allows 
this thought of the lesson unit to wobble, from the focus of her consciousness, 
nor from that of her pupils. The story or mental-picture material must 
be merely illustrative of this lesson point. For this reason, it will be ob- 
served that in Mr. Kenyon's treatment he devotes some space, following 
the statement of the lesson unity to running discussion of what is to be 
brought out of the reference cited to illustrate the lesson unit. In framing 
chalk lessons upon this model the utmost care should be taken that no 
matter be introduced which oversteps the lesson unit. 

It will also be noted that the thought of the lesson unity is sometimes a 
feeling and sometimes an industrial or physical fact. The first lesson unity 
has for its purpose the association with Scandinavia, the poetic feeling for 
the old Viking life. It is necessary that the lesson unit should be feelingly 
presented as literature. If we analyze our geographical content we find 
that these feeling elements make up a large part, and they should not be 
neglected as they have been in mere text treatment. 

If the work of instruction ended merely with the chalk-talk the pupil 
would not carry much knowledge away with him. This stage is therefore 



( vi ) 

a second chief danger. It is necessary to work up the mental pictures which 
the chalk lesson presents by class discussions, and recitations. Moreover, 
out of each of these chalk lessons a few formal facts are valuable for life, 
and therefore must be memorized, and it will be necessary to review them 
frequently and test pupils by examination. But facts learned in this way 
after a wealth of concrete pictures and incidents have been presented are 
altogether different from words memorized from a text-book without any 
such background. Such facts are the figures in the foreground, while the 
chalk lesson is the perspective. It is at this point that the text-book may 
profitably be introduced as one form of review. Condensed statement of 
facts already presented in concrete form is now of service. 

Another salient principle of method which Mr. Kenyon's treatment illus- 
trates is the order of presentation of the chief elements of geographical 
knowledge — map location, descriptive feelings and facts, causal relations 
in physical, social, and industrial geography. Geography is spatial, and 
these spatial relations are first visualized accurately and impressed indelibly 
upon the visual memory. Then with the map pictures are associated the 
descriptive material, feelings, incidents, etc., in concrete form, and from these 
are worked out general statements of enduring value. Finally, after the chil- 
dren know and feel certain conditions and facts, the causes of these are 
undertaken. It is needless to defend this order, though it is rare in geo- 
graphical treatment. It is folly to talk about geographical conditions before 
they can be visualized accurately, and it is equal folly to force pupils to 
explain the causes of conditions of which they know nothing as yet; after 
the conditions are known, then is the time, by virtue of logic as well as of 
interest, to explain the cause. 

For the assistance of teachers in framing chalk lessons in relation to other 
geographical areas, upon the model of Scandinavia as presented by Mr. 
Kenyon, the following schema is given. Corresponding with the Roman 
numerals of this schema, there will be found in the Bulletin the same 
numerals, so that the plan may be followed in exemplification. 

GENERAL SCHEMA OF CHALK LESSONS. 

I. Succinct statement, at the beginning of the treatment of each geo- 
graphical area, of the goals or lesson unities of this area. (For form, see 
Bulletins Nos. 5 and 6.) 

II. Repetition of each of these goals or lesson unities separately. (A 
lesson unity may, of course, include several lessons.) 

III. Enlargement of this statement, in style to correspond to its inherent 
quality, aiming not to become a source of information, but to give tasty 
suggestions which will lead to thorough reading by the teacher of the 
references cited ; and also to touch upon all essential fields of data obtainable 
in these references necessary to develop the goal or lesson unity stated. 
Specific references should be interlarded in the body of this section. 



( vii ) 

IV. Detailed references of children's and teachers' reading, annotated 
to show the features which illustrate the stated goal or lesson unity. 

V. (For lesson unities which have any informational character.) State- 
ment in concise form of the information to be remembered or memorized. A 
test of such information should be whether or not this knowledge is the 
common posession of the average person of intelligence. 

VI. Use text as final review. 

VII. (a) (For those lesson unities stating physical, commercial, or indus- 
trial features.) After the descriptive treatment including the feeling ele- 
ments have thus been presented, in I, II, III, and IV, proceed to explain 
each specific feature of essential importance in the given area, tracing its 
development out of physical causes and conditions (the influence of erosion, 
valley formation, winds, rainfall, ocean currents, etc., will here be intro- 
duced, each treated with specific reference to the local conditions ; all im- 
portant physical features will thus be covered, after the descriptive treatment 
has aroused an interest in them, and each treatment will be specific and not 
general, enabling pupils to think clearly in mental images. Physical experi- 
ments, board drawings, apparatus, etc., are here introduced) ; also state 
and illustrate specifically, each trade center of each industry in a given area, 
tracing (when these are matters of common knowledge) the means of 
transportation of products, the chief foreign markets, and the chief products, 
not only of importation, but exportation as well. 

(b) (For social, historical, scenic, or other lesson unities.) After the de- 
scriptive treatment, including the feeling elements, have thus been presented 
in I, II, III, and IV, proceed to trace the character of the people or other 
feature under consideration, to their physical, industrial, historical, or other 
natural causes. 

VIII. (For lesson unities in which either (a) or (b) of VII have any in- 
formational character.) Statements in concise form of all knowledge, be- 
longing to common currency, to be remembered by pupils. 

General — For every paragraph or section of treatment throughout; the 
pedagogical purpose of the treatment or the method of presentation should 
be distinctly stated, even at the risk of repetition. This will constitute a 
body of practical pedagogy. 

Frederic Burk. 



NOTE. 

There is a so-called German method of instructing, whereby the teacher, 
in a series of familiar talks with his pupils, imparts the knowledge content 
of the subject being taught. Whereafter, the pupils being duly subjected to 
oral and written tests, the teaching is complete. While to the live American 
teacher such a plan may lack either foreign flavor or novelty, it must cer- 
tainly appear to have a special value in those grades for which there is a 
dearth of informational reading. In such a situation, the teacher, by the 
word-of-mouth method, becomes the source of that information upon which 
the lessons are based. It is needless to remark that this plan implies a free 
'perusal, on her part, of the books whose contents she is to assimilate and re- 
present to the children, in such an adapted form as will reach their under- 
standing and win their interest. Meanwhile it is presumed that such meager 
reading as is available for the grade being taught will be placed in the chil- 
dren's hands, as supplemental to the teacher's own descriptions. 

The addition to these recitals by the teacher of suitable blackboard sketches, 
done while she talks, constitutes the chalk-talk treatment of a subject. Artis- 
tic merit has little to do with the application of this plan. The first requisite 
is not graphic skill, but merely the habit of making marks on the board as 
one talks. Of course, a good drawing is always better than a bad one, but 
the teacher who idly dreams of the things she will do " after she has learned 
to draw " will never do any chalk-talk. Agreed, then, that technical excel- 
lence in the drawing is not what we are after, there is, however, one positive 
requirement. This is, that the diagram, map, or sketch shall be done in the 
presence of the pupils, while you are talking to them, and in the most intimate 
illustration of what you are saying. It is evident, then, that this device of 
chalk-talk is not exclusively for those who draw well, but for every teacher 
who has courage enough, or ambition enough, to make a chalk-mark on the 
blackboard. No better illustration of this fact need be given than our ex- 
perience with our normal students. Our "chalk-talkers " are not in any case 
selected for their graphic skill. Every girl in the school uses the crayon in an 
illustrative way, in giving her lessons. She does it as a matter of course, just 
as she writes. We score our first success when the student " feels lost without 
the crayon in her hand." After the chalk-talk habit is thus fixed, of course 
some degree of technical skill is readily imparted. Once the novelty wears 
off, blackboard drawing is just as facile a device as blackboard writing, and 
just as indispensable. It should be noted that, in the ensuing pages, not all 
of the illustrations are pictorial in their nature. Some are maps, others are 
diagrams. But all are equally exemplifications of the chalk-talk idea. 
* * * 

In the following chalk-talk treatment of Scandinavia the original intention 
was to adapt it particularly to the fourth grade, with the belief that the 

( i ) 



( 2 ) 

bulk of it would be available also for the third. We determined later, however, 
to amplify the treatment and the reference list so as to make the study easily 
adaptable by the teacher to upper grades as well. It is taken for granted, 
in any case, that the beginnings of formal geography (locating continents, 
oceans, etc.) will have been taught preceding any such descriptive study. 
The present treatment opens, therefore, with the formal geography of the 
specific region, Scandinavia. There follows the descriptive and physical 
geography, based upon the essential characteristics of the region, and 
introducing the teacher to detailed references. These page-by-page refer- 
ences, it is hoped, will be received with satisfaction, as a time-saving device. 
The books cited are in every case those which should appear upon the 
shelves of a school library. 

Each sub-topic is followed by a suitable exercise aiming to clinch and make 
permanent to the pupil the essential points presented. A book list will be 
found at the end of the bulletin. W. J. K. 

San Francisco, January I, 1904. 



( 3 ) 



FORMAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE REGION. 

Before taking up the descriptive work which forms the body of this 
treatment, the formal geography of the Scandinavian Peninsula should be 
given, about as follows : 

Tn the first place the teacher draws upon her blackboard a good-sized 
outline of Scandinavia. She shows the fiord coast of Norway with some 
care, since this is one of the most important features of the map. The low- 
lands are now filled in with green chalk and the highlands with white. 
The principal lakes and rivers are put in with charcoal. A few touches of 
charcoal are used also to shadow the highlands and so bring out the relief 
effect seen in Fig. i. 

This map should be somewhat carefully drawn. It is to remain on the 
board for constant reference until the topic of Scandinavia is finished. 

There is a very serviceable reference map of the peninsula in Redway's 
Advanced Geography, Appendix XVII. The pictured relief in this bulletin 
(Fig. i) is intended for the teacher's copying. 

i. Scandinavia in its relation to the rest of Europe. 

Have the pupils find the peninsula on the text-book map of Europe. With 
this map before them let them say what waters and land surround Scandi- 
navia.* Let them say in what direction it lies from us and what ocean we 
would cross to reach it.* 

2. Natural features. 

Elicit that the highlands are in the western part, chiefly in Norway ; and 
that the lowlands are in the eastern part, chiefly in Sweden.* 

Have the pupils notice the deeply indented coast of Norway. Explain, 
briefly at this time, that these ocean inlets are called " fiords." 

Let them notice that Sweden, in particular, contains a great many lakes.* 
Also that the longer rivers are in Sweden, showing that the divide of the 
peninsula is near the western side.* 

* In each of these formal map exercises see that the pupil's statement is 
based upon a map-image, and not a zuord-image. In the formula — " New 
York lies at the mouth of the Hudson River," — the mental picture involved 
may be any one of three: — 

i. It may be the visual image of the printed statement, without reference 
to the map. 

2. It may be the auditory image of the spoken statement, without reference 
to the map. , 

3. It may be the visual image of the map area, containing New York and 
the Hudson River in their locations relative to each other and to the rest of 
the region. 

The teacher is ever in danger of accepting No. 1 "or 2, and supposing it to 
be No. 3. 



( 4 ) 

3. Political boundaries. 

Let the pupils find the political boundaries between Norway and Sweden 
and between these countries and Russia.* This having been done, mark these 
boundaries in red chalk upon your blackboard map. 

4. The cities of Scandinavia. 

On the text-book map let the pupils find Stockholm and Christiania, and 
have them state the location in each case.* Have them locate also Gothen- 
berg, Bergen, Trondhjem and Hammerfest* As fast as these cities are 
found locate them in red chalk upon your blackboard map. 



The above formal geography material need not take up more than one les- 
son ; and if a few minutes remain, give the first step in fixing the map-image. 
(See page 5.) 

Test. 

Let each pupil trace an outline of Scandinavia (as in the first step of 
"Fixing the Map-Image," p. 5). Let this outline include also the political 
boundaries. 

Have the pupils then print the following names in place : Atlantic Ocean, 
Arctic Ocean, Baltic Sea, Russia, Norway, Sweden, Stockholm, Christiania, 
Gothenberg, Bergen, Trondhjem, Hammerfest. , 

In naming the cities the lettering is to be small and local, and a dot is to 
be placed upon the proper spot. 

Ask these questions in review: 
Which country is nearly all highland? 
Which country has the longer rivers? 
Where are the fiords ? 
Where are most of the lakes ? 



( 5 ) 

Fixing the Map-Image. 

People who can draw maps or other forms from memory call into action 
two separate memories. One of these is the visual, which remembers the 
appearance of the original copy, as to proportion, contour, and color; the 
other is the motor, in which the muscles and joints remember the motions re- 
quired to produce any specified drawing. By duly practicing the four steps 
described below, for two or three minutes during each lesson, the average 
pupil can learn to draw any map, from memory. 

First step. — Tracing through thin paper. 

The pupil is given an outline map* and a sheet of transparent paper. The 
teacher has fastened the two sheets together at the top. On this transparent 
sheet the pupil traces the outline. 

These tracings may be torn off and saved for later use, while the original 
outline may be laid aside, to be used again. 

Repeat this exercise for several days. 

Second step. — Copying (preferably on the blackboard). 

The teacher draws a large, strong outline on the board or on a large sheet 
of paper. The pupil copies this, looking at it as frequently as he pleases. 
The teacher passes rapidly about the room and criticises each drawing. Her 
criticism should generally call attention to some unique feature of the outline, 
by which it is most readily memorized. Thus, in the map of California, the 
north boundary is just as long as the adjacent line of the east boundary. Or, 
in Eurasia, the southern point of India is about due south of the Gulf of Obi. 

Repeat this exercise for several days. 

Third step. — Copying, after one preliminary glance. 

The pupil is allowed one good look at the teacher's map, after which it is 
covered up and the pupil proceeds to draw from memory. Time, two min- 
utes. Later reduce the time to one minute. 

Each drawing is to be criticised by the teacher. 

Repeat this exercise for several days. In cases of slow progress revert 
to first step. 

Fourth step. — Time sketch, without copy. 

Pupil draws a one-minute map, from memory. In cases of slow progress 
revert to third step, or if need be, to first. 

Repeat this exercise for several days. 



In the descriptive work that follows, begin each day's iesson with a 
two-minute blackboard exercise on the second, third, or fourth step of 
Fixing the Map-Image. 



*This outline should be strong and black, so as to show clearly through the transparent sheet. Our 
student-teachers at the school make their own outline maps, using a hectograph for duplicating. The maps 
are made on a stout manilla paper, cut about 8xn. 

For the transparent sheet we are using a paper called "onion-skin," which takes ink. We buy a ream 
17x22, for $1.50 at a paper warehouse. We have the dealer cut it into fourths, thus getting four reams 8 ^x 11 
for Ji. 50, or something over twelve sheets for a cent. 



( 6 ) 



(The heavy numerals in the margin refer to corresponding numerals in "General Schema of Chalk 
Lessons.") 

DESCRIPTIVE GEOGRAPHY OF SCANDINAVIA. 

Lesson Unities. 

i. Scandinavia is the ancient home of a vanished race of sea-fighters — 
the Vikings. 2. It is a region of rugged mountain scenery whose particular 
features are fiord and lake. 3. It is a region of long and snow-bound win- 
ters and short but genial summers. 4. It is the " land of the long 
I. night " and " the land of the midnight sun." 5. It is, save for a 

few cities toward the south, thinly populated by an industrious, frugal 
people, honest in their dealing, and kindly of heart. 6. The land is not 
adapted to supporting a large population, so the Scandinavians are notably 
a seafaring people. 7. In the world's markets this region is known for 
its coast fisheries, its lumber, and its iron. 



T 1. Scandinavia is the ancient home of a vanished race of sea-fighters 

— the Vikings. 

(The following material naturally divides itself into two chalk-talks, one 
associating Scandinavia with the old Vikings, the other devoted to "The 
Skeleton in Armor." A simple map, copied from Fig. 3, will be required for 
frequent reference.) 

A thousand years ago there lived in Norway a race of sailor-men who 
got their living by fighting. Nowadays we should call them pirates, and our 
men-of-war would sink their boats and hang the crews. But in those times 
fighting was considered a very decent way of making one's living, and be- 
sides that, these Vikings, as they were called, met with none who could 
withstand them. In their open boats they would sally forth from the nar- 
row, winding bays of Norway (point them out on the map) and cross the 
North Sea, sometimes to the British Isles, but oftener to the coast of France. 
Wherever they landed their coming meant defeat and ruin to the people 
living in that part. The Viking ship was like an immense open rowboat, 

with one large sail amidships. There were rows of oars along each 
III. side to help the sail. In some of these ships the prow was carved in 

the shape of a dragon's head and the stern was made in imitation of a 
dragon's tail. Along the sides of the vessel the fighting men arranged their 
round shields, overlapping, like great fish-scales. Altogether such a Viking 
ship must have looked like a terrible sea-monster, bearing down upon the 
shore it was going to attack. 

The Vikings were sometimes called Norsemen, because they came from 
the North. They robbed the people of Northern France so often and were 



( 7 ) 



such irresistible fighters that the king at last offered them a part of the 
country if they would cease from piracy and come and live in peace. So 
the robber chieftains settled down and their chieftains became nobles. The 
country given them by France was called Normandy, because the Vikings 
were called Norsemen. (Point out the various routes and regions as you go 
on.) 

Other bands of Norsemen sailed their open ships to the British Isles and 
made conquests over the Britons. Others reached even the coast of Spain 
and did some fighting there. 




Fig. 2. 
A Viking Ship. 

Meanwhile some of the Norsemen had sailed west instead of south. These 
reached Iceland and Greenland, and their descendants are there yet. And 
greatest adventure of all, at least one ship is thought to have reached Amer- 
ica, long before Columbus discovered the new land, and long before it had 
a name. The story is well told for children in Chapter II, From the Old 
World to the New ; also, in Chapter IV, Children's Stories of American 
History. 

So those old Vikings, whose ships were only overgrown rowboats with 
one sail apiece, actually sailed across the ocean. They began by stealing 
out of their home fiords, or bays, and robbing passing ships. And they 
ended by conquering lands in countries far over the sea. The children will 
enjoy Miss Hall's stories in Viking Tales. Of these Olaf's Farm and 
The Sea Fight, in particular, should be read, for the flavor of Viking times 
which thev hold. 



( 8 ) 

The map (Fig. i) shows the ragged and rocky coast of Norway where 
these Vikings, or Norsemen, came from. And their descendants live there 
to this day. But they are no longer sea-robbers. They long ago settled down 



r 




m Jg 


p - 


1 


■ " : 








B» : 













Fig. 3- 
Some of the Operations of the Vikings. 

to hard work at home, and they are as honest and as kind of heart as any 
other people in the world. 

There is a ruinous old stone tower in Rhode Island. For a while no 
one could find out who built it. Some people liked to fancy that those old 




Fig. 4- 
" There is an old stone tower " — 

Norsemen, who are thought to have come a thousand years ago, were the 
builders. Nor far away a skeleton was dug up, dressed in armor such as 
fighting men used to wear hundreds of years ago. When the poet Long- 
fellow heard about this skeleton he made up a fanciful story about it. He 
said that the soldier in his rusty armor was a Vikinsr of the olden time, who 



( 9 ) 

had stolen a princess in Norway and had come over here to live. This Viking 
and his men built the old stone tower. The story is put in the form of a 
poem. It is called 

The Skeleton in Armor. 

The poem is to be found in any edition of Longfellow. We want it 
in the present connection to re-enforce that austere, somber, remote atmos- 
phere which permeates our feeling for the Norsemen and their times. There- 
fore it is available for reading to the fourth, and, perhaps, even to the third 
grades. They will not understand all of its allusions, but they will absorb 
those elements of feeling that we are after at present. 

There are several other stories of the Vikings available for use in the 
lower grades, either as substitutes for the above material or as additions 
to it. Such a one is "Wulf, the Saxon Boy," in Miss Andrews' Ten Boys. 
Although its title implies nothing of Scandinavia, this story is essentially a 
Norse tale, in its atmosphere, its ethics, and its phraseology. Here Thor, the 
Thunderer, "lets fly his arrows at his foes" and, 

"The Swan-road is ever the road to glory." 

A good story of a Viking sea-fight is told in Du Chaillu's Land of the 
Long Night, Chapter XXX. The style is so direct that fourth-year children 
can read it. 

There is a description of the Vikings, readable by third-year children, 
in Carroll's Around the World, Second Book, pp. 83-87. See, also, the verses 
in the same book, pp. 106-108. 

For teachers' reading there are short accounts in Stoddard's Lectures, 
Vol. I, pp. 79, 80, and in Norway Nights and Russian Days, pp. 45-52. The 
chapter on Norsemen in any general history will also be useful. An ex- 
ample is Chapter XII, Duruy's History of the Middle Ages, or, better still, 
Fiske's Discovery of America, Chapter II. (See especially pp. 214-215, 
about the " Northmen's" tower.) In Land of the Midnight Sun, Vol. I, 
pp. 377-383, is given a detailed account of the remains of old Viking boats. 
There is a good description, also, in Footprints of Travel, pp. 239-240. This 
book contains references to the Viking times, pp. 252-253. 

It is well to note that these Vikings, known abroad as robbers and ma- 
rauders, really had a better home government than did most of the countries 
they overran. See Footprints of Travel, pp. 237, 238. 

Written review. 

Let the pupils write upon the following topics : 

1. The home of the Vikings. 

2. The doings of the Vikings. 

3. Their visit to America. 



( io ) 

Things to remember — 

i. That the fiords of Norway were the home of the old Vikings. 

2. That these Vikings became possessed of foreign lands, notably 
V. Normandy, Iceland, and Greenland. 

3. That they are believed to have landed on the continent of North 
America. 

Test. 

On an outline map (adapted by the teacher from Fig. 3*) let ea'ch pupil 
shade the original home of the Vikings, and also the principal foreign areas 
in which they operated. 



2. It is a region of rugged mountain scenery whose particular 
features are fiord and lake. 
With the foregoing historical setting we may approach the wild Norseland 
in its modern and more strictly geographical aspect. As a basis for the work 
now to follow, the map, Fig. 1, should be reviewed as to highlands, low- 
lands, fiords, islands, and lakes. 
III. Nearly all of Norway is a mountain land. But the greater part 

of Sweden is a lowland, sloping gently from the plateaus of Norway 
to the coast of the Baltic Sea. If we could cut a model of Scandinavia in two 
from west to east the cut part would look like Fig. 5. This profile is very 
easy for grown people to understand, but to make its meaning clear to chil- 
dren we must lead them, objectively, to see the nature of a cross-section. 
This is easily done with a handful of putty or moist sand or clay. Lay it 
on any flat surface, such as an old box-cover. Work it roughly into the 
general form of Scandinavia. Make Norway high and work the Swedish 
lowlands out low and flat. After the children have seen this and understand 
clearly what it represents, cut the mass across the middle and push the south- 
ern half away. There will then be 
seen, at the cut place, a cross-section, 




or profile, of the country . somewhat 
as in Fig. 6. 

Norway is said to have ten thou- 
sand islands along its coast. They 
Profile of Scandinavia. ,, , ' , , r 

are all steep, brown hummocks of 

rock, green with mosses, and very beautiful. Some are large enough 
for a few fishermen to live upon, with their sheep. Many others 
are just islets of rock, hardly larger than a good-sized house. Wherever 
there is a little flat place between the rocks, some farmer-fisherman 
is sure to build his cottage and bring his cow. Sometimes one family will 
live all alone upon one of these little rocky islets. A pretty description of 



'The teacher makes these outline maps on her hectograph. 



( II ) 



this world of islands is given in Glimpses of Three Coasts, pp. 221-225. 
Stoddard, pp. 89-90, gives another. The Lofoden Islands and their famous 
"Maelstrom" are described in Footprints of Travel, pp. 257-259. There are 
other short descriptions in Modern Europe, 107-111, and in Johonnot's 
Geographical Reader, 173-174. For the old, fanciful 
notion of the Maelstrom and its terrors, of course noth- 
ing can surpass Edgar Allen Poe's imaginative descrip- 
tion. 

After sailing for hours among these islands (Fig. 7 
wili do for a blackboard sketch), the steamer comes 
at last to the mainland. It does not stop, even then, 
but enters a fiord instead and keeps sailing among the 
mountains quite out of sight of the sea. The coast of 
Norway rises abruptly out of the water. But this sea- 
front is broken by hundreds of deep and sinuous inlets, 
called fiords. By these the deep sea pierces, sometimes 
for a hundred miles, into the very heart of the moun- 
tain land. So the odd sight is to be seen, in that coun- 
try, of ocean steamers sailing among the mountains 
many miles inland from the ocean. Stoddard speaks of 
as "ocean avenues," and devotes pages 
49-59 to their description, together with excellent pic- 
tures. See, also, pp. 11 -12 and 89-90. Another good 
account of the fiords is given in Glimpses of Three Coasts, pp. 221-225 and 
271-276. As pretty a descrption as any is found in the first four pages of 
Feats on the Fiord. This whole story is exquisitely rich in local color and 
the atmosphere of the fiords ; and while it purports to be a love story there 
is so little love in it, and so much of other matters, that it makes rarely good 
children's reading. 

In Land of the Midnight Sun the author discusses the origin of the fiords 
(Vol. I, Chapter 18). In Chapters 20, 23, and 24, he describes several 




Cut the mass across these fiords 
the middle and push 
the lower half away. 




Fig. 7. 
" Norway has ten thousand islands." 



fiords as to scenery and travel. In Vol. II, pp^ 154 and 160-161, a fiord 
of the far north is described. Short descriptions of the fiords are given in 



( 12 ) 



Carpenter's Europe, pp. 164-166, and Norway Nights and Russian Days, pp. 
107-109. Footprints of Travel gives a short but good description, pp. 
260 and 265-266. See, also, Modern Europe, pp. 93-94. The Tarr and 
McMurry Geography, Book III, p. 257, describes Norway's coast. 

Fig. 8 shows how a fiord may be sketched upon the blackboard. At the 
same time refer to the fiords as seen in your map so that the pupils will asso- 
ciate the one form of illustration with the other. Make reference at every op- 
portunity to your map. Make a practice of locating, in every case, the new 
places mentioned, such as Bergen, Hammerfest, etc. 

We have thus given the children an intensive notion that the fiord is a 
characteristic feature of Norway. It is due to the topic, however, to seek 
out the essental features of Sweden, also. Here we have a country of lake 
and forest. "In making Swe- 
den," the peasant says, "God for- 
got to separate the land from the 
water." About one tenth of all 

the area of Sweden is covered by 

beautiful lakes. In the pictur- 
esque phrasing of Stoddard 

(Sweden, p. 283), "The map of 

Sweden is as thickly dotted with 

lakes as the midnight sky with 

stars." One of these, Lake 

Wenern (Vanern), is so large 

that steamers sailing on it are 

often out of sight of land. In 

other words, it is an inland sea. 

Mr. Stoddard (Sweden, 292) 

gives a little description of a 

steamer-trip on this great lake. 

See, also, Land of the Midnight 

Sun, Vol. II, 351; and Na- 

smyth's Autobiography, 304. 

All of the lakes of Sweden are of clear, limpid water, which is fit to drink ; 

and around them rise the great dark forests of aspen, birch, and mossy oak. 

Elsewhere the well-kept farms -are spread, where the thrifty Swede has his 

fields of grain and garden truck. Read Modern Europe, p. 118. 

In that beautiful land people travel about from town to town by boat, just 

as we do by rail, although, of course, they have railroads, too. Read about 

the Dalecarlians and their Lake Siljan, in Land of the Midnight Sun, Vol. 

II, 225, 229-230. The same book gives further accounts of the lakes on 

pp. 304 and 337. These chapters on Dalecarlia give an inclusive and alto- 
gether delightful idea of that low-lying Sweden between the highlands and 

the sea. Footprints of Travel, 235-236 and 343, gives some notes on these 

lakes. Land of the Midnight Sun, Vol. I, p. 13, describes Lake Malar, and 

p. 253 a Norwegian lake. 




( 13 ) 

As a summary of this topic a little special study of your blackboard map 
is appropriate. Notice that all the long rivers cross Sweden and flow into 
the Baltic. Their sources are quite near the other coast. This shows that 
the axis, or high-line, of the peninsula is near the western side, thus dividing 
Scandinavia into a long, gradual eastern slope, and a short, abrupt western 
slope. Notice that nearly all of the real mountain land is in Norway, and 
nearly all of the more level region, suitable for farming, in Sweden. The 
interior of Norway, wildly beautiful as it is, is almost useless for making 




Fig. 9. 

In Dalecarlia. 

one's living, so nearly the whole population live among the fiords along the 
coast, and depend upon the sea for their living. Sweden, on the contrary, has 
quite a large population living inland, where the nature of the country 
encourages farming, mining, and manufacturing. 



Written 



review. 



1. Describe the coast of Norway. 

2. Describe a fiord. 

3. Describe the surface of Sweden. 

Things to remember — 

1. That Norway is a wild mountain land, with thousands of rocky islands 
and deep ocean inlets along the coast. 
V. 2. That Sweden is lower and less rugged and that her lakes are 

" thick as stars in the midnight sky." 

Test. 

(Furnish each pupil with an outline map of Scandinavia.) 
1. Shade the map so as to show highlands and lowlands. 



( 14 ) 

2. Put in enough of the rivers to show which country has the longer slope. 

3. Put in the principal lakes. 

4. Print these words in place : Highlands. Lowlands. Fiords. Islands. 

Cross-section test. 

Draw a cross-section of Scandinavia from the ocean to the Baltic Sea. 



II. 



3. It is a region of long and snow-bound winters and short but 
genial summers. 

These snow-bound conditions are found in their extreme in Lapland. 
There is room for a couple of chalk talks on this region, but the children 
should not leave the subject with the notion that Lapland conditions are typi- 
cal of Scandinavia as a whole. An inclusive and fascinating account of 
III. this overwhelming blanket of snow is given in Land of the Long 
Night, chapters four and six to ten. This book has the rare value 
of being readable by fourth-year children and yet maintaining an excellent 
literary tone. Mr. Du Chaillu speaks with the authority of personal narrative, 
and is therefore especially useful as teachers' reference. 




Fig. 10. 
Paulus and His Reindeer. 

The same author, in Land of the Midnight Sun, Vol. II, Chaps. 6 to 8, 
deals very circumstantially with this long Lapland winter. The style is so 
simple that the whole book may be read to children. For the teacher's 
purposes it is over-full of minute detail. Land of Long Night is the more 
available book of the two. Du Chaillu's account of Lapland is very service- 
ably abridged in Johonnot's Geographical Reader, 401-407. In the same 
book Bayard Taylor gives an amusing account of his attempts to drive a 
reindeer in the Lapland snows. 



( '5 ) 

Mara Pratt's Northern Europe gives a short account of Lapland, pp. 73-77, 
readable by children. An appropriate blackboard sketch is shown in Fig. 10. 
For an idea of winter in Sweden itself, Chapters 2 and 3, Land of the Long 
Night, are fine. The last half of Chapter 1 begins the account. 

The winters of the Norwe- 
gian side of the peninsula are 
much milder. It is wonderful 
to think that this far north- 
ern country, much of it with- 
in the Arctic Circle, enjoys 
a winter more comfortable 
than that in many parts of 
our own land. The fiord re- 
gions experience some ice and 
snow, but the fiords them- 
selves never freeze, save in the 
south round about Christiania. 
In other words, the fiord 
towns, however Arctic their latitude, enjoy open harbors all winter. Even 
Hammerfest, the most northern town in the world, has an open harbor 
the year round. (Locate it, once more, upon your map.) Russia would give 
a good slice of her vast realm for such a climatic privilege. A good ac- 
count of this difference is to be found in Chapter Eleven, Vol I, Land of the 
Midnight Sun ; also, in Vol. II, Chapter Ten. 




Fig. 11. 
They climbed out of the chimney. 




Fig. 12. 
Norse Boys at Play. 



A charming idea of Norway's short, genial summer is given in Footprints 
of Travel, 241-242 and 262-263. Stoddard's Norway, 113-114, gives an 
idea of the intensity of the summer life, when it does come. " The flowers 
do not close in sleep. All vegetation rushes to maturity." Johonnot's 
Reader, 193-197, gives a prose description, by Longfellow, of the novelty 



( i6 ) 

and charm of the Norse seasons. There is material on this point in Land 
of the Midnight Sun, Vol. I, pp. 149-152. 

A bright account of Norse boys' winter sports for children's reading is 
given in The Wide World, pp. 88-95 '■> an d a revision of the same in By Land 
and Sea. pp. 53-59. There is another in Chapter Eleven, Children of the 
World. There are a few paragraphs, also, in Northern Europe (Ginn), pp. 
15-17. This material is an excellent basis for chalk-talks, being full of action, 
lending itself easily to blackboard sketching. Fig. 12 suggests some of these 
sketches. 

Written review. 

1. Compare the climate of Norway with that of Sweden. 

2. Write what you know of each. 

Things to remember — 
V. 1. The comparatively mild climate of Norway. 
2. The deep, deep snows of Sweden. 



II. 



4. It is the " land of the long night " and " the land of the mid- 
night sun." 

Scandinavia is a quaint and curious land in many respects, and in others 
a grand and noble and awe-inspiring land. But of all its odd features the 
midnight sun sets it apart as the strangest of civilized countries. 

We cannot tell primary-grade children the causes of the long summer 
day and the long winter night, but we can describe vividly the phenomenon 
itself. Even as far south as Gothenburg one can read the newspaper 
III. out of doors at half-past ten of a summer evening; while in mid- 
winter one is plunged from the bright light of morning to the gloom 
of late afternoon within the space of a few hours. 

In Glimpses of Three Coasts, pp. 225-226, the author tells of her remark- 
able sensations in that curious land of day-by-night. Land of the Midnight 
Sun, Vol. I, p. 2, describes the transition from the long summer day to the 
long winter night. Also, in Vol. II, pp. 1-2, the author continues the subject. 
Both of these accounts are reprinted in Northern Europe (Pratt), pp. 65-71. 
Pages 85-86 of the same book tell of the long day and night at Hammerfest. 
Carpenter's Reader, Europe, pp. 163-164 and 173-175, touches upon this 
subject. 

Of course, farther north these unusual circumstances are even more notice- 
able. In the northward journey we come by and by to a latitude where 
there is no actual darkness in summer; where the darkest part of the night 
is a strong twilight, by which we can read. Under such conditions travelers 
do not know when to go to bed. For sleeping purposes, an artificial darkness 
has to be made by hanging coverings over the windows. Stoddard (Norway, 



( i7 ) 

pp. 36-39) says that the words "early" and "late" grow to have no meaning, 

and he goes on to describe the curious sensations experienced by the traveler. 
Yet farther north the summer night is even brighter. The sun sinks toward 

the horizon, but does not set. Instead it begins to rise again, thus making a 

complete circle in the sky. This 
is the Land of the Midnight Sun. 
The little sketch, Fig 13, can be 
made very realistic by using col- 
ored chalk. "From early in May 
until August the stars take a va- 
cation," say Ballou. See Foot- 
prints of Travel, pp. 254, 256, 
261, 268, 269. Of course, it does 
not seem at all like night. There 
are no stars to be seen, and the 
moon, when it shows at all, is very 
pale. Travelers from other coun- 
tries have to tell by their watches 
when it is time to "turn in." 
Stoddard (Norway, pp. 117-119) tells how he saw the midnight sun from 

North Cape. The same experience is feelingly described in pages 163-168 of 

Norway Nights and Russian Days. 




Fig. 13. 

This is the Land of the Midnight Sun." 




Fig. 14. 
" They fish by the weird light of the aurora." 

The continuous dark of winter is just as strange as the long light of 
summer. See, also, Modern Europe, pp. 109-111. The northern part of 
Scandinavia has one long night continuing many weeks. During that time 
the sun is always out of sight below the horizon. The stars and moon shine 
brightly all through this time. The people sleep when the clock says it is 



( i8 ) 

sleeping-time, and rise in the darkness at the proper hour and continue their 
work. Land of the Midnight Sun, Vol. I, pp. 61 and 63-64, gives a particu- 
larly clear description. 

The children will ask how the Scandinavians can see to do their work at 
such times. Well, they have the stars and a brilliant moon. But, more 
serviceable still, they have the northern lights, the aurora borealis, a great 
flaring illumination of the polar sky, which throws a dull sort of twilight 
over land and sea. Stoddard (Norway, pp. 106-107) tells how most of the 
Lofoden codfishing is done by the light of the aurora. The phenomenon 
itself is beautifully described by Du Chaillu in Land of the Midnight Sun, 
Vol. II, pp. 46-47 and 38; also in Frost's Modern Explorers, 115-116. The 
illustration, Fig. 14, is easy to draw, since the aurora may take almost any 
form, and is constantly waving and shooting and changing its appearance. 

In Land of the Long Night, pp. 73-76, Du Chaillu tells stirringly of the 
departure of the sun and the coming of the long night. In pages 109-111 
he describes the return of the sun. A vivid word-picture of the aurora is 
given on page 76. Page 92 shows a fine picture of the aurora, together 
with a Lapland landscape. Bayard Taylor, in Johonnot's Reader, pp. 105- 
107, gives a splendid description of the aurora, for the teacher's reading. 

In Feats on the Fiord, pp. 200-202, Erica, while tending her cows, wit- 
nesses the phenomenon of the midnight sun. Chasing the Sun devotes 
pages 77-78, 83-85, 87, 112-114 to references to the long light and dark 
seasons of the Northland. 

Written review. 

1. Tell why Scandinavia is called " Land of the Midnight Sun." 

2. Describe the summer season. 

3. The winter season. 

4. The aurora. 

Things to remember — 

1. A very long summer day — in the far north many weeks in length. 
V. 2. A winter night correspondingly long. 

3. The aurora borealis gives a useful winter light. 



TT 5. It is, save for a few cities toward the south, thinly populated by 

an industrious, frugal people, honest in their dealing and kindly of 
heart. 
In the northern region of the peninsula the long winter and lingering snow- 
banks forbid any farming of importance. Besides this, the northern part of 
Norway is too rocky for farming. Such people as live in' those parts have 
little choice of pursuit. They must either live on reindeer, as the 



( 19 ) 




Lapps do, or they must take to the coast fisheries for a living. But 

Vllb. in the south there is more good farming land in both countries, 

particularly in Sweden. 

The people of the extreme north are described in Land of the Midnight 

Sun, Vol. II, pp. 143-146 and 152-164. The romantic lonesomeness of a 

Norwegian farmer's life is 
well brought out in Feats on 
the Fiord, pp. 2-7. Also in 
Glimpses of Three Coasts is 
given an idea of the remote, 
isolated life among the beau- 
tiful Norse fiords, pp. 267- 
276 and 305-308. Pages 222- 
244 are full of short, chatty 
anecdotes of the people and scenes of Norway ; 
a little diffuse, but available for the teacher. 
Footprints of Travel, pp. 245-246, tells how 
the Norwegian farmers have to utilize every 
available rod of land to the utmost. An idea 
of the scant northern population is given on 
pages 255-256. "And yet in this awful soli- 
tude a few human beings live and move and 
preserve their being." — See Norway Nights 
and Russian Days, pp. 107-110. Modern Eu- 
rope, pp. 93-99, gives an interesting glimpse 
of the Norwegian farmer's life. Carpenter's Europe, pp. 178-179, gives an 
idea of the economical methods which nature forces upon the Norwegian 
farmer. 

At these lonely little 
farms, perched like eagles' 
nests high above the 
fiords, the farmer some- 
times has to "tether his 
babies to the trees" to keep 
them from falling thou- 
sands of feet below. Read 
Modern Europe, pp. 93- 
97. Also Stoddard's 
Norway, pp. 70-73, and 
Footprints of Travel, 245- 
246. Land of the Mid- 
night Sun, Vol. I, pp. 111-121, gives a substantial account of one of the 
northern farms. 

On the Swedish side of the peninsula the northern regions are scantily 
peopled by wandering Lapps and Finns, who follow their reindeer over the 



Fig. 15. 

The romantic lonesomeness.' 




Fig. 16. 
The Lapp and His House of Sod. 



( 20 ) 

snow from one feeding ground to another. For accounts of these people 
there is no other book quite so useful as Land of the Long Night. Chapters 
6 to 8 deal especially with the Finnish people as found in North Sweden. 
From Chapter 9 onward all portions of the book are available for giving 
the pupil clear ideas of the Lapps and their country. Qhapter 18 is devoted 
to Lapp sports, and Chapters 32 and 33 deal with the Sea Lapps, who take 
part in Norway's fisheries. An abridged account of the Laplanders, by the 
same author, is given in Johonnot's Geographical Reader, pp. 401-407. In the 
same book Bayard Taylor gives an amusing story of his attempts to drive a 
reindeer in the Lapland snows. 

There is a short but very descriptive account of the Lapps in Footprints of 
Travel, pp. 263-265, and a few paragraphs in Modern Europe, pp. 111-113. 
Chasing the Sun devotes pages 103-111 to an interesting account. There are 
short accounts in Carpenter's Europe, 1 66-171 ; Northern Europe (Pratt), 
73-77; Around the World (Second Book), 113-125, and Stoddard's Norway, 
109-112. 

Of course, the description of the Lapps is found in Land of the Midnight 
Sun, Vol. I, pp. 122-148 and Vol. II, pp. 69-114 and 165-204. The teacher 
who is dissatisfied with the scrappy treatments of the geographical readers 
will take great comfort in these personal narratives of Mr. Du Chaillu. 

We have now to establish the idea of a larger population in the south, and 
a greater civilization. Added to the better chances for farming and for 
living generally, there are great mines of iron and copper in the middle 
and southern parts, and great forests to furnish lumber. All of these con- 
ditions work together toward gathering the great bulk of the people into 
the southern part of the peninsula. Here are all the larger cities, such as 
Stockholm, Christiania, and Gothenburg. Short descriptions of the cities 
are to be found as follows : 

Stockholm — Footprints of Travel, 270-273; Modern Europe, 115-116; 
Land of the Midnight Sun, Vol. I, 13-15; Nasmyth's Autobiography, 297- 
298; Carpenter's Europe, 182-184; Norway Nights and Russian Days, 
190-201. Stoddard gives a very complete account in Stoddard's Sweden, 
294-320. 

Christiania — Footprints of Travel, 236-241; Modern Europe, 101-102; 
Land of the Midnight Sun, Vol. I, 297-302; Vol. II, 3; Carpenter's Geo- 
graphical Reader, 180; Norway Nights and Russian Days, 28-52 (diffuse). 

Bergen — Footprints of Travel, 247-250; Modern Europe, 104-105; Land 
of the Midnight Sun, Vol. I, 203-210; Glimpses of Three Coasts, 221-240; 
Stoddard, Norway, 82-88; Northern Europe (Pratt), 88-92. 

Gothenburg — Footprints of Travel, 233-234; Modern Europe, 119; Car- 
penter, 180-181 ; Land of the Midnight Sun, Vol. I, 5. 

Hammerfest — Footprints of Travel, 266-267; Carpenter's Europe, 170- 
171 ; Land of the Midnight Sun, Vol. I, 97-99 ; Norway Nights and Russian 
Days, 155-159. 



( 21 ) 



Trondhjem — Footprints of Travel, 251-253; Carpenter's Europe, 166-168; 
Land of the Midnight Sun, Vol. I, 191-192; Norway Nights and Russian 
Days, 121-128. 

Tromso — Footprints of Travel, 261-263; Carpenter's Europe, 169-170; 
Land of the Midnight Sun, Vol. II, 113-114; Davis, 143-154. 

The personal traits of the Scandinavians and their social customs, so dif- 
ferent from ours, should be brought out. The people of both countries are 
noted for their hospitality toward each other and toward strangers. The 
traveler is always impressed by the kindly welcome he receives. Good char- 
acter is a public ideal, practically worked out. Read what Du Chaillu says 
of his experiences, in Land of the Midnight Sun, Vol. I, pp. 114, 199-200, 
245-246, 250, 289, 299-300, 401-402; Vol. II, pp. 17-18, 118, 228, 374-376, 
394-398, 417. A pleasing idea of the pastoral repose of a Norwegian rural 
home is given in Vol. I, pp. 247-249. See, also, Feats on the Fiord, pp. 10-14, 
and Norway Nights and Russian Days, pp. 65-66 and 71. 

A charming description, amounting to a tribute, of rural Sweden is to be 
found in Johonnot's Reader, pp. 193-197. It is written by Longfellow. Read, 
also, Footprints of Travel, pp. 240-241 and 250-251, and Norway Nights 
and Russian Days, 120-121. Du Chaillu comments frequently on the con- 
spicuous honesty and sobriety of the people. See Land of the Midnight Sun, 
Vol. II, pp. 39, 48, 167, 169, 202-203, 306, 122, 127, 216-218; also Vol. 
I, pp. 3, 41, 168 and 178, and Stoddard's Sweden, 289. James Nasmyth 

(Autobiography, pp. 304-305) 
pays a glowing tribute to these 
sterling qualities of the Swedes; 
and they seem to be exhibited in 
the northern peoples., the Lapps, as 
well. Read Land of the Long 
Night, 242-243. Carpenter's Eu- 
rope, 179-180, gives an idea of the 
industry of the Scandinavians. 
Around the World (second book), 79-101, 
describes, for third- and fourth-year chil- 
dren, their various industries. 

In the Swedish household every one is 
cheerfully busy at some domestic task. 
Read Land of the Midnight Sun, Vol. II, 
p. 417; also, Feats on the Fiord, 42-44. 

Another trait of these people is their 
strong belief in equality among men. 
In Norway they address even the 
king as "du" (thou). Employers, 
also, are very courteous to their working-people. Servants are treated on a 
basis of equality. Read Land of the Midnight Sun, Vol. I, pp. 391-392; 




Fig. 17. 
" Do not forget to rest your horses/ 



( 22 ) 




Vol. II, pp. 216-217, 397-398, 451-452. Throughout Feats on the Fiord the 
equality of servant and householder is apparent. See page 7 of that story. 

One other trait noticeable to the traveler from possibly less kindly lands 
is the Scandinavian's habitual kindness to animals. Along the steep hill- 
roads of Norway are frequent signs reading " Do not forget to rest your 
horses." In both countries it is common to set out sheaves of grain for the 
song-birds. In that pleasant land the animals and birds seem to expect 
consideration. See Footprints of Travel, 244; Modern Europe, 103; The 
Wide World, 88; Boy Travelers in North Europe, 474-480; Land of. the 
Midnight Sun, Vol. I, 58-59, and Vol. II, 6-7. 

Around the World (second book) contains good reading for third and 
fourth grades, descriptive of Norse customs generally, and useful in the 
present topic. In Carpenter's Europe, 
176-186, the author takes us upon a 
pleasant "carriole" trip, in which we 
meet the people and see their daily do- 
ings. 

The children will enjoy reading about 
the Norse boys' games — skating, sail- 
ing on skates, etc. Accounts are to be 
found in The Wide World, 88-95 ; By Land and Sea, 
53-59; Northern Europe (Ginn), 15-17, and Children 
of the World, Chapter Eleven. The merry festivities 
of the Christmas season are told about in Land of the 
Midnight Sun, Vol. II, pp. 4-9, and in Children of the 
W T orld, pp. 154-155. Midsummer day is also a time of 
fun and frolic. See Land of the Midnight Sun, Vol. 
II, pp. 224-225. 

A Swedish dinner is a curiosity throughout, begin- 
ning with a preliminary course of tid-bits, eaten at a 
sideboard, standing. Read Land of the Midnight Sun, 
Vol. I, pp. 6-8; also, Stoddard's Sweden, 289. Some of 
the curious foods of Norway are described in Norway 
Nights and Russian Days, 69-70, and in Stoddard's Norway, 30-34. 

The Scandinavians used to be very superstitious. They still have a linger- 
ing belief in water-sprites, trolls, and other mysterious beings. These beliefs 
are brought out in the anecdotes on pages 8-9, 24-41 and 194-197 of Feats on 
the Fiord. 

In the curious land of Sweden steamships climb hills and travel overland 
from one sea to the other. They climb upstairs some three hundred feet in 
the locks of the famous Gota Canal. Fig. 19 becomes a realistic illustration 
if you draw the boat first in one lock, then in the next, changing the water- 
level to permit the passage. This water-way is none of your American 
coal-barge routes, but a delightful inland passage, along which the happy 
tourist may dawdle for days on a comfortable passenger steamer and see the 




Christmas for 
the Birds. 



( 2 3 ) 

interior of Sweden in all its quaint beauty. Good accounts arc found in 
Stoddard's Sweden, 283-293 (plentifully illustrated) ; Nasmyth's Auto- 
biography, 300-308; Footprints of Travel, 234-235; Modern Europe, 117; 
Norway Nights and Russian Days, 181-182; Land of the Midnight Sun, 
Vol. II, 330-333 and 336-337. The first two mentioned have the best 
accounts. 

In Norway the distinguishing features of travel are the stocky, willing 
little ponies, the carriole, with its girl driver, and the curious svstem of 
post-roads. Read Knox's Boy Travelers in Northern Europe, 474-480 ; North- 
ern Europe (Ginn), 102-104; Stoddard's Norway, 26-28; Chasing the Sun, 
58-64, 68-74, 99-100. 116, 1 19-120. 




The Locks. (In the diagram the steamer is going "upstairs." The water in 
lock a will be raised to a level with that in b; then the gates, x, will be 
opened. The steamer will pass into b. The water in that lock will then be 
raised to the level of c, and the vessel will pass as before.) 

In mountainous countries having cold winters and warm summers the 
farmers generally have two farms. One of these is the mountain pasture, 
to which they drive their cattle in the spring. The other is the lowland farm, 
to which the animals are driven back in the autumn. In Switzerland, Scandi- 
navia, and the Sierra foothills of California the cattle and sheep perform this 
migration up and down the mountain every year. In Scandinavia the moun- 
tain dairy-farm is called the saeter. It is usually conducted by the girls of 
the family. They live up there alone all summer, making butter and cheese, 
and lead a romantic but very lonesome life, until it is time to go below for 
the season. Land of the Midnight Sun, Vol. I, 290-296, gives a good idea 
of a saeter; also pp. 280-281, 285-288 and 433; also in Vol. II, pp. 254, 256, 
268 and 303-307. Modern Europe, 97, contains a short reference. 

Written review. 

1. Why is the population of Scandinavia mainly in the south? 

2. Describe the character of the Scandinavians. 

3. Write a little story that shows their character. 



( 2 4 ) 

Things to remember — 
VTT _ i. That the north is a lonesome land and the south quite thickly 

populated. 
2. That the people are notably kind, honest, and industrious. 

Outline map test.* 

i. Shade the map to suggest density of population — the more people the 
darker the shading. 

2. Place dots locating the following places ; make the dot large or small, 
according to the size of the place: Stockholm, Gothenburg, Christiania, 
Bergen, Trondhjem, Hammerfest. 

3. Print the names in place. 



TT 6. The land is not adapted to supporting a large population, so the 

Scandinavians are notably a sea-faring people. 
Only one fiftieth of Norway is arable land, and in Sweden less than one 
tenth. The rest is made up of steep mountain land, either bare or forested. 
These conditions drive the bulk of the Scandinavians either to their coast 
fisheries or to service on the high sea. Read Adams' Commercial Geography, 
pp. 258-260 and 262. 

The Scandinavian sailors are known in every part of the world. If we 

should step aboard a ship in Bombay or any other distant port, we would 

probably find that some of the crew had been born on the crags 

Vila, over some Norwegian fiord, or perhaps in sight of some Swedish 

lake. Ship captains are always glad to get these Norse sailors. They . 
are obedient and know how to do their work. Many of them get their 
training for the sea in the great fisheries on the coast of Norway. See 
remarks, p. 150 and top of p. 125, Vol. II, Land of the Midnight Sun; also 
Footprints of Travel, 245. 

The Norwegians are not only sailors ; they are captains and owners. Save 
Great Britain and the United States, little Norway has more freight vessels 
on the ocean than any other country in the world. Having little of her own 
to carry, these ships do an ocean express business for the other nations, just 
as an expressman in our own town will carry boxes and bales for other 
people and then go home with his earnings. Adams' Commercial Geography, 
pp. 262 and 158, gives an idea of the significance of this immense " carrying 
trade." Tarr and McMurry (third book), pp. 255-256, remarks in the same 
vein. 

The Norway fisheries are described in detail in Land of the Midnight Sun, 
Vol. II. The famous Lofoden Island fisheries are dealt with in pages 1 15-134 
and 145-146. Mr. Du Chaillu went with these Norse fishermen in their 
boats, and lived their life on land and sea. He helped catch codfish, and 

"The teacher will find Fig. i a good map from which to trace her hectographed outlines. 



( 2 5 ) 

tells just how it was done. He gives us an idea of the enormous number of 
codfish caught, and of the simple, homely life of the fishermen. In his com- 
pany, we see how the cod-liver oil is made which is sold at the corner drug- 
store in our own town. Around the World (second book) has some pictures 
and reading for children on this subject, pp. 99-101. 

Besides the cod-fishing, the Norwegians do a big business in herring, 
using great nets. Read pages 146-150, Land of the Midnight Sun, Vol. II. 
There are references to fishing elsewhere in the book, but those cited will 
be ample for the teacher's purpose. Of course the art of presenting the 
subject is to minimize the technical details and bring out the landscape, the 
picturesqueness of the fisher's life, and the fact that so large a part of the 
people are fishermen and sailors. 

Land of the Long Night deals with the Norway fisheries in a form avail- 
able for children's reading. Pages 190-21 1 give a close acquaintance with 




Fig. 20. 

With the Norse Fishermen in Their Boats. 

the serious, honest fiord folk, who look only upon the sea and figure only 
upon fish. Even the cows and sheep eat fish! (p. 237). See, also, Feats on 
the Fiord, p. 4. 

Footprints of Travel, pp. 248-249, tells of the shark-fishing off the Nor- 
wegian coast. There is a reference to the Lofoden fishermen on pages 
258-259. From Tromso vessels start for the seal and walrus grounds. 
See page 263. 

A general account of cod-fishing, herring-fishing, etc., applicable to the 
present study is to be found in Information Reader No. 1, pp. 120-126 and 
148-152. The Lofoden cod-fisheries are told about in Modern Europe, 
108-109. Stoddard (Norway, p. 85) speaks of Bergen as the chief distribut- 
ing-point for Norway's fish ; and on pages 106-107 tells how most of the 



( 26 ) 

Lofoden cod-fishing is done by the light of the aurora. Glimpses of Three 
Coasts gives a chatty description of Bergen as a fish-market, (p. 235-236). 

The Tarr-McMurry Geography, Book Third, pp. 254-257, gives a resume 
of Norway's dependence upon the sea. 

Written review. 

1. Compare the occupations of the Norwegians with those of the Swedes. 

2. Why do foreign vessels so often have Scandinavian sailors ? 

Definite points to be made — 

1. That Norway has few farmers and many sailors, and why. 
VIII. 2. That Sweden has more farmers and a bigger population, and why. 

3. That the merchant fleets of the world are manned largely by Scan- 
dinavian sailors. 

Test. 

1. Shade an outline map of Scandinavia to show the great fishing region. 

2. Shade, also, the principal farming area. 

3. Print these words in place: Fisheries. Farming. 



II 



7. In the world's markets this region is known for its coast fisheries, 
its lumber, and its iron. 
The preceding topic has given us a clear notion of the great fishing indus- 
try of the Norwegians. It remains to' remind the children that the codfish 

are dried and the herrings smoked. In this 

form they are shipped all over the world, so 

that Boer soldiers in South Africa and 

wheat farmers in Dakota are likely to sit 
down to a breakfast of fish that 

Vila, were caught off the Lofoden Isl- 
ands, perhaps as much as a year 

before, by a Norwegian fisherman. Give 

the class an idea of this great preparation 

of fish for export. See pages 1 18-1 19, Land 

of the Midnight Sun, Vol. II ; also Glimpses 

of Three Coasts, 240. Around the World 

(second book), pp. 100-102, has a little 

children's reading. 

Next to Norway's codfish. we think of her 

lumber. How often we hear poetical allu- 
sions to the staunch ship with her mast of 

Norway pine. All through the fiord region, 

where the rocks are not too steep, they are 

covered with forests. And out of these the Scandinavian cuts the logs that go 

to many countries. Carpenter's Europe, pp. 176-177, muses a little on the 




Fig. 21. 
The masts of great ships 
are here.'' 



( 27 ) 

wanderings of a Norway pine. Modern Europe, pp. 99-100, tells about these 
fiord lumbermen. " Wherever there is a platform beside the cataract where 
the sawyer may plant his mill and make a path from it to join some great 
road, there is a human habitation and the sounds that belong to it." — Feats on 
the Fiord, p. 3. 

Sweden is also a great lumber country. Indeed, lumber is her largest item 
of export. See Adams' Commercial Geography, p. 260. McMurry (Book 
Third, p. 258) says that nearly one half of Sweden is covered with forest. 

We are in danger of giving the pupils the notion that all Scandinavians 
are fishermen and none are farmers. As a matter of fact, the agricultural 
population is the larger of the two. The Swedish farmers raise a great deal 
of the food that is eaten in Sweden. But we think of a country not by what 
it raises and eats, but by what it raises and sells; and Scandinavia has no 
food product to sell except fish. 

The iron of Scandinavia is famous in other countries for its fine quality. 
England and Germany buy a great deal of it. Much of the " Sheffield 
steel " that we prize so highly in our knives and other tools is originally dug 
out of the ground in Sweden, and sent to Sheffield, England, to be made up. 
The "Norway iron," so famous among blacksmiths, is really Swedish iron. 

Nasmyth's description of the Swedish iron mines at Dannemora (Auto- 
biography, pp. 300-302) is worth the teacher's reading for her own sake. 
The " unfathomable depths " of this vast hole in the ground are anything 
but prosaic in the reading. There is also a full-page illustration worthy of 
Dore. There are shorter references in Footprints of Travel, 236, and Modern 
Europe, 114. 

Lest the children have by this time the fixed notion that Scandinavia is 
made up entirely of fiord and snowbank, a little reference to Swedish manu- 
facturing may be made, as found in Land of the Midnight Sun, Vol. II, 
pp. 372 et seq. The busy cities of workmen, such as Norrkoping, should be 
pictured, and visited in imagination. An important preliminary is to locate 
the place on the map always. 

Written review. 

1. Name the two principal exports of Norway. 

2. Name the two principal exports of Sweden. 

3. Tell how the codfish are prepared for export. 

4. State some use to which the Norway pine is put. 

5. Tell what you have learned about " Sheffield " steel. 

Things to remember — 
VIII. 1. Norway exports chiefly codfish and the famous Norway pine. 
2. Sweden exports chiefly lumber and a high grade of iron. 



PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF SCANDINAVIA. 

i. The fiords are thought to be " drowned " valleys, cut originally by 
glaciers and rivers, and afterward sunk below sea-level. 2. The mild climate 
of Norway is now ascribed to the prevailing sea winds, and not to the Gulf 
Stream. 3. The long winter night, the long summer day, and the midnight 
sun result from the earth's annual revolution and the inclination of its axis. 
4. Scandinavia's long winter and short summer are due to the low altitudes 
of the sun. 5. The aurora borealis is believed to be the light of a great mag- 
netic disturbance over the magnetic pole. 

1. The fiords are thought to be " drowned " valleys, cut originally by 
glaciers and rivers, and afterzvard sunk below sea-level. 

In many coasts of the world there are long, deep bays, such as in Norway 
are called fiords. Physiographers take these fiords as evidence that the land 
in those parts has gradually sunk, allowing the sea to creep into the mouth- 
ward parts of the river valleys. New York Bay is really a fiord in this sense, 
and divers who explore its bottom find the old river channel reaching quite 
out into the sea. Wherever the map shows a ragged, deeply cut coast, such 




Fig. 22. 

The Making of a Fiord, (a. The river valleys before the region has sunk. 
b. The flooded valleys, or fiords, after the sinking.) 

as that of Maine, Alaska, Chile, Scotland, or Norway, we may be fairly certain 
that the long arms of ocean water are fiords and that the land has sunk 
and " drowned " its rivers in the sea. 

In the case of Norway, the fiords are so very deep that nothing but glaciers 
could have cut them out. It is believed that the Scandinavian plateau was 
once much higher than now, and covered by a tremendous ice-cap. Out of 
this ice-mass the glaciers crept, grinding out deep valleys as they pushed 
toward the sea. After the glaciers disappeared these valleys were occupied 
by rivers, which wore them down still further. Now the land sank slowly 

( 28 ) 



( 2 9 ) 

into the sea. The sinking amounted to several thousand feet, and progressed 
so slowly that it took many thousand years. As the sinking went on the 
sea filled the sunken valleys and made fiords. The teacher looking the mat- 
ter up for the first time will be perplexed to read that Norway is rising 
instead of sinking. She has only to remember, however, that this is a later 
movement. Throughout the earth's surface this slow upheaval and sub- 
sidence is forever going on, sometimes the one, sometimes the other. 

The explanation of the fiord, or drowned valley, is given in any geology 
or physical geography, among them the following: 

Davis's Physical Geography, pp. 196, 345, 358-359, 368-369. 

Brigham's Text-Book of Geology, pp. 166-167, 2 17- 

LeConte's Compend of Geology, pp. 38, 155-157. 

Tarr and McMurry's Geography, Third Book, p. 257. 

Dryer's Lessons in Physical Geography, pp. 133-134, 228-229. 

Land of the Midnight Sun, Vol. I, devotes pages 219-226 and 316-317 to 
a consideration of this sinking and rising of Scandinavia, and to the agency 
of the glaciers in fiord cutting. 



2. The mild climate of Norway is now ascribed to the prevailing sea zvinds, 
and not to the Gulf Stream. 

The explanation commonly given is that the Gulf Stream sweeps north- 
ward from the tropics with its flood of warm water, and lends its mild tem- 
peratures to the coasts of north Europe, particularly Norway, and including 
Great Britain. While the climatic facts beautifully justify this theory, our 
meteorologists lately are telling us that it is all just a pretty fancy of Maury's. 
They say that the Gulf Stream disperses itself before it reaches such high 
latitudes. They say, also, that it is the prevailing ocean winds that soften 
Norway's climate. They remind us that any region whose prevailing winds 
are from the sea will enjoy the mild climate, summer and winter, of the sea 
itself. The scientists of to-day speak of " the Gulf Stream myth " (so far as 
it applies to the climate of Europe), and charge it to the account of Maury, 
who first advanced the theory. 

One piece of evidence in favor of the Gulf Stream idea, as affecting Nor- 
way, seems as yet to have been overlooked. It is that the harbor of Hammer- 
fest remains open throughout the winter, while that of Christiania, a thousand 
miles nearer the equator, is frozen for three months in the year. This fact 
appears the more troublesome since the two places are of such geographical 
location as to give full color to the Gulf Stream explanation; while, if the 
latter is to be superseded, the prevailing winds should bring to Christiania 
practically the same soft winter that is enjoyed by Hammerfest, plus the 
benefit of a more southerly location. This kink is doubtless easily explained, 
however, by some local condition. 



( 30 ) 

As to what we geography teachers shall do in the matter, there seems to 
be but one course open. That is to explain carefully the Gulf Stream idea, 
because it has grown to be an item of universal belief, and therefore essential 
to our teaching; but at the same time to see that the children regard it 
as a brilliant notion of other days, disproven in our own. And, finally, we 
must supplant it with the simple conception of a sea-wind bestowing the soft 
climate of the sea upon the favored land over which it blows. 

The Gulf Stream explanation of Norway's climate is to be found specifically 
stated in Land of the Midnight Sun, Vol. II, chapter 10. Read, also, Bayard 
Taylor, in Johonnot's Reader, pp. 330-331 ; Carpenter's Europe, p. 168; Land 
of the Long Night, pp. 188-189 and 228 ; Footprints of Travel, pp. 238 and 
266-267; Stoddard's Norway, pp. 11 and 112-113. Of course, the standard 




Fig. 23. 
The Gulf Stream Idea, so far as It Concerned Norway. 

presentation of this theory is to be found in The Geography of the Sea, by 
Maury, the father of the idea. 

The refutation of the Gulf Stream theory, ascribing these climatic effects 
wholly to the agency of prevailing sea-winds, is convincingly given -in " The 
Gulf Stream Myth," Scribner's, Vol. 31 (1902), pp. 689 et seq., and Bulletin 
American Geographical Society (July, 1901), p. 259, "Certain Persistent 
Errors in Geography." 



( 3i ) 

3. The long winter night, the long summer day, and the midnight sun 
result from the earth's annual revolution and the inclination of its axis. 

The present purpose is not to teach mathematical geography inclusively, 
but to have recourse to so much of it as will explain Norway's midnight 
sun and her curious day and night. 

During summer in the northern hemisphere the earth's axis inclines toward 
the sun. During the winter it inclines away. Look at the summer position, 
Fig. 24. The axis leans toward the sun. The north pole is well out in the 
hemisphere of daylight. Now let us imagine the earth rotating on its axis. 
Each rotation will make a day, according to the calendar. Yet the pole will 
remain out in the sunlit hemisphere. A person standing at the pole would 
see the sun all the time. There would be no darkness. 

Now notice that the same will be true on that day for the whole arctic 
region. The sun's rays pass beyond the pole and strike as far as the Arctic 




Fig. 24. 

The Long Winter Night and the Long Summer Day. 

Circle on the other side. In other words, when the earth is in that part of 
its orbit, the whole region bounded by the Arctic Circle has the sun all night. 
Seen from a town on the Arctic Circle on that day, the sun, instead of setting, 
makes a complete circle in the sky. 

Of course, the longest period of continuous sunshine is at the pole itself. 
If any one were there to see, the sun would be in sight for six months and 
below the horizon the other six. These periods shorten rapidly as we leave 
the pole. At Hammerfest the sun is continuously in sight for two and a 
half months ; but at the Arctic Circle the longest period of actual sunshine is 
twenty-four hours. This happens on midsummer day and is the most south- 
erly instance of Norway's midnight sun. In Volume I, Land of the Midnight 
Sun. p. 107, there is a table giving the duration of the long day and the 
long night at different arctic latitudes in Norway. 

Proceeding south from the Arctic Circle, day and night grow more nearly 
of the same length. But even in our own latitude we have a long day and 
short night in summer and the reverse in winter. At the equator day and 
night are always equal. 

We can estimate the day's length in any latitude by studying Fig. 25, which 
shows the axis inclined toward the sun on midsummer day. Any parallel 



t 32 ) 



of latitude that is entirely within the lighted hemisphere will have the sun 
for at least all of one rotation. If the parallel slightly enters the dark 
hemisphere, that latitude will have a short night — a few minutes or hours, 
according to the proportion of the parallel that lies in the dark. Notice that, 
as we proceed southward, more and more of the parallel lies in the dark 
half of the earth until at the equator just half the day's rotation lies in the 
light and the other half in the dark. 

The teacher will be greatly aided in the presentation of this topic by a 
careful reading of Jackson's Astronomical Geography, pp. 32-64. She will 
find the little book not as for- 
midable as its name. The essen- 
tial understanding of the earth- 
and-sun relation is nowhere else 
so easily gained. 

The Tarr and McMurry Ge- 
ography (third book), pp. 8-16, 
gives a serviceable explanation 
of the seasons, and the diagrams 
are particularly valuable. , Du 
Chaillu in Volume I, Land of the 
Midnight Sun, pp. 61-63, ex- 
plains the long day and night in 
Norway. His table on page 107 
is useful in connection. 

Turning now to the winter 
position (Fig. 24), we find 
the earth's axis inclined away 
from the sun. Everything 
within the Arctic Circle is in the 
hemisphere of darkness. A person living on the Arctic Circle will catch just 
a glimpse of the sun at noonday, as the earth's rotation brings him to the 
point nearest the sun. He will have only a few moments of day, and about 
twenty-four hours of night. People farther north, or within the Arctic 
Circle, will not see the sun even at noon. They will be in the dark during 
the whole rotation. Journeying south from the polar regions, we shall find 
the difference in length of day and night growing less, until at the equator 
they become equal, as before. 




Fig. 25. 
The proportion of the parallel lying within 
the lighted hemisphere determines the 
length of day at that latitude. 



4. Scandinavia's long winter and short summer are due to the low latitudes 
of the sun. 

We know that in summer the sun is high in the sky, and in winter it is 
lower. If the children have never noticed this, they should be led to observe 
how the noonday shadows shorten as the summer comes and how they 



( 33 ) 



lengthen as the winter draws on. Some schools use a shadow-stick for this 
purpose, but fence-posts, trees, or the pupils themselves answer the purpose 
just as well. The shadow-stick is made of a short and a longer piece of thin 
wood (cigar-box wood will do) nailed together at right angles, as in Fig. 
26. If this contrivance is placed with its " back " toward the sun, the shadow 
of the upright will be thrown upon the horizontal piece ; and. of course, in a 
series of trials through the season this shadow will be observed to lengthen 
or shorten according to the altitude of the sun. If now a strip of paper 
be pasted upon the base-piece, the shadow-lengths may be marked, and their 
respective dates written against the marks; and the year's record is easily 
made the basis of a series of effective lessons upon mathematical geography. 
We find, then, that in a general way our hot season is the period when the 
noonday sun is high in the heavens, and our winter is the season when the 
sun, even at noontime, is low toward the south. The hottest countries of 
the earth have the sun directly over head, which we never do; but in arctic 

latitudes even the midsummer 

\d{£_ sun is very low in the southern 

/v!^ sky, while the winter sun is alto- 

/'/' gether out of sight. It is plain, 

then, that the tropics, over which 

the sun stays all the time, will 

have a perpetual summer; and 

the polar regions, where the sun 

merely hangs low for a while 

in the far southern sky, will 



Fig. 26. 
The Shadow-Stick. 



have a nearly continuous winter. 
And we must remember here 
that Norway thanks her ocean 
air, rather than direct sunshine, for her mild climate. Other lands in Nor- 
way's latitude, which have not the benefit of the soft ocean airs, have a 
much longer and colder winter. 

A little further study of Fig. 24 will be of service here. Remember that 
it is the vertical rays that count for the hottest and longest summers ; and 
the vertical rays are those only which strike toward the center of the earth. 
Notice, in Fig. 24, the vertical ray strikes at Cancer on our midsummer day 
and at Capricorn in our midwinter. No latitudes nearer the poles ever get 
the vertical rays. Notice that in the polar latitudes the sun's rays strike the 
earth in a very oblique direction, and therefore give little heat. The fact 
that the arctic regions have any summer at all is largely due to the sun 
shining day and night when summer does come. 

In this connection pages 25-28 of Jackson's Astronomical Geography 
should be carefully studied by the teacher. 



( 34 ) 

5- The aurora borealis is believed to be the light of a great electric 
VII. disturbance over the magnetic pole. 

Du Chaillu's description (Land of the Midnight Sun, Vol. II, pp. 
46-47) makes reference to the electrical cause of the aurora. The matter 
is further explained in Mill's Realm of Nature, p. 116. 



VI. Use the text-book as a final review. 



Books Mentioned. 

(The first group are children's books, well adapted to the fourth grade and 
of some use in the third. Of course, the information contained is available 
in upper grades as well. The second group are for teachers' reference. ) 

Group I. 

The Wide World. Ginn & Co. 

By Land and Sea. Youths' Companion Series. 

Northern Europe. Ginn & Co. 

Northern Europe. Mara Pratt. Educational Pub. Co. 

Carpenter's Geographical Reader — Europe. American Book Co. 

Feats on the Fiord. Martineau. Dent & Co. 

Around the World. Carroll. The Morse Co. 

Land of the Long Night. Du Chaillu. Scribners'. 

Boy Travelers of Northern Europe. Knox. Harpers'. 

Viking Tales. Jennie Hall. Rand McNally Co. 

From the Old World to the New. Dickson. Macmillan. 

Children of the World. Educational Pub. Co. 

Children's Stories of American History. Wright. Scribners'. 

Modern Explorers. Frost. Cassell & Co. 

Group II. 

Land of the Midnight Sun (2 vols). Du Chaillu. Harpers'. 

Glimpses of Three Coasts. Jackson. Roberts Bros. 

John L. Stoddard's Lectures, Vol. I (Norway, etc.), Vol. II (Sweden, 

etc.). Balch Bros. 
Autobiography. James Nasymth. Harpers'. 
Footprints of Travel. Ballou. Ginn & Co. 
Modern Europe. Coe. Silver, Burdett & Co. 
Geographical Reader. Johonnot. American Book Co. 
Chasing the Sun. Ballantyne. 
Commercial Geography. Adams. Appleton. 



( 35 ) 

Norway Nights and Russian Days. Davis. Forcfs, Howard & Hulbert. 

Ten Boys. Jane Andrews. Ginn & Co. 

Geography of the Sea. Maury. 

Discovery of America, Vol. I. Fiske. Houghton. Mifflin & Co. 

Physical Geography. Davis. Ginn & Co. 

Lessons in Physical Geography. Dryer. American Book Co. 

Compend of Geology. Le Conte. American Book Co. 

Text-Book in Geology. Brigham. Appleton. 

Astronomical Geography. Jackson. Heath. 

Tarr and McMurry Geography (third book). Macmillan. 

Realm of Nature. Mill. Scribners'. 



JAN 6 1904 



